Inglourious Basterds – Blu-ray Disc Review

December 2, 2009 – 11:15 pm - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: August Diehl, B.J. Novak, BD-Live, Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, D-BOX, Diane Kruger, Digital Copy, Eli Roth, Jacky Ido, Julie Dreyfus, Martin Wutke, Melanie Laurent, Mike Myers, Pocket Blu, Quentin Tarantino, Rod Taylor, Sylvester Groth, Universal

has an average rating of 8.5 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are mostly Hi-Def with Digital Copy
–
– 2009
– 153 Minutes
– Universal
–
This uses 34.8GB for the movie out of 44.5GB total.

Overall Verdict – Very Highly Recommended

Buy it for $19.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review by: Justin Sluss & Brendan Surpless —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino of “Reservoir Dogs“, “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill” fame. This is Tarantino’s 7th feature film (not included his guest director spots on “Sin City” and “Death Terror“. Barely escaping Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (a brilliant Christoph Waltz), Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) has to flee from her home after Landa has her entire family executed. Traveling to Paris, she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a theater. Elsewhere we meet Lieutenant Aldo Raine (an often hilarious Brad Pitt) who has been gathering a group of Jewish Americans known as “The Basterds”. They have one goal and only one goal….Killin’ Nazi’s. Raine and his group obviously become quite the nuisance to Hitler and his Third Reich as a large majority of the Nazi’s are being killed. Raine soon joins forges with German actress Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger). With Hammersmark playing the role of an undercover agent, their goal is to get inside the Third Reich in hopes of achieving an act that will bring down the Nazi regime, that being the assassination Adolf Hitler. What results is one of Tarantino’s absolute finest efforts as he’s able to swiftly combine acting and humor on every front making this an all around excellent film.

The initial impact that comes from “Inglorious Basterds”” occurs in the opening sequence. As Landa and his group of Nazi soldiers storm into Drefyus’s home, brutally murdering her entire family only for her to watch from underneath the floor boards, the acting by Christoph Waltz is absolutely stunning at nearly all metrics. Literally if this was Waltz’s only sequence in the entire film, the man deserves an Academy Award nomination. Landa clearly knew that Drefyus was hiding, could have killed her, but instead played with her like a cat plays with a mouse. He had his prey within reach but decided to let her go for whatever reason. Waltz here is calculating, cunning and downright brilliant. He plays a man that we immediately despise on all levels, someone who we would love to see get what’s coming to him, yet for some reason I found myself loving each and every piece of dialogue Waltz uttered. While not as powerful as Bruno Gantz Adolf Hitler in “Der Untergang“, Waltz has transformed Landa into a character we loathe, but love at the same time.

Humor has always been a tool that Tarantino has been able to successfully implement into nearly all of his films. In “Inglorious Basterds“, Tarantino has nearly all of the humor come not only from the Nazi actor who is basically a star for the regime (the short film is absolutely hilarious as it’s a funny satire on propaganda efforts of the time), but mostly from Brad Pitt as Aldo Raine. I’ve always found Pitt to be quite the accomplished actor, particularly in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button“, so it came as no surprise that he was able to inject the amount of humor he did into this performance. Here as Raine, Pitt portrays a man we instantly find a connection with. His opening scene, in which the Basterds have captured a group of Nazi commanders, is truly great. Akin to how Landa played cat and mouse with Drefyus and her family, here Raine plays the similar game with the lives of these commanders. We all know that Raine will kill these men, but the back and forth between Raine, the commanders and the other members of the Basterds is hilarious. Not only is his accent funny, but the mannerisms in which he acts throughout only all but add to the impacting charm of the film.

In closing, “Inglourious Bastards” is yet another excellent film from Quentin Tarantino and definitely one of his finest to-date. As I left the theater, I was blown away by how Tarantino combined all these aforementioned elements. There really isn’t any sequence that feels overly long, makes us look at our watch or really feels that it shouldn’t be left on the cutting room floor. If you haven’t seen this one yet, definitely do. The film truly is as great as everyone has said it is. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. According to IMDb, this was shot on traditional 35mm film using both Arriflex and Panavision cameras. If you didn’t know that and/or notice the tiny amount of film grain visible, you’d almost think this was shot in Hi-Def — it honestly looks THAT good here transferred to Hi-Def. The black level is solid as ink, the fleshtones are accurate, and the color palette is definitely vibrant — even though subdued at times in a few scenes (chapters). The amount of detail found here is phenomenal, especially in close-ups which reveal a even larger amount of detail. The wonderful cinematography done here by Robert Richardson (Director of Photography) is done utmost justice. No signs of compression flaws, heavy DNR or EE filter usage or anything really worth complaining about. This video presentation is very solid and by my eyes, perfect, earning it a “5 Star Rating” for overall video quality. Congratulations to Universal on a very, very impressive 35mm to Hi-Def transfer here.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. First off, you’ll notice the music picked out here by Quentin is wonderful and it gets wonderful treatment here in the DTS-HD 5.1 MA mix. Music gets great rear channel presence, distinct front channels and a significant amount of LFE (bass) as well. The music such as that of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, the select music from the 1973 motion picture “White Lightning” done by Charles Bernstein, the Billy Preston song, the David Bowie song (“CAT PEOPLE (Putting Out The Fire)“) and even the original theme to the 1968 film “The Mercenaries” done by Jacques Loussier all sound wonderful here.

The music is always important in a Tarantino film, there is no doubt in that, even Quentin will tell you that but what most will always agree is important in a Tarantino film is dialogue, which is delivered perfectly here throughout. No volume adjustments should be required here at all during your viewing (listening) experience. The audio presentation here is very fitting and does the film justice. It’s not enough to be “over-the-top” action or such to be something you’d consider “demo material” but at the same time it is very excellent quality, as I said before. With that being said, overall this earns a very impressive “4.5 Star Rating” for audio quality. Kudos to Universal on yet another job well done.

Bonus Materials are presented in both Hi-Def (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) video quality using AVC MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 codecs (respectively in that order) with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound — unless otherwise noted.

• BD-Live is included on this release which requires the user to be a “Profile 2.0” capable Blu-ray Disc Player for internet connectivity. Once connected, you’ll be able to get the latest trailers from the studio (in this case Universal) as well as share scenes with your friends, chat with “My Chat” or even record your own commentary track via BD-Live and Universal‘s Hi-Def website.
• “Killin’ Nazis Trivia Challenge” is a online multiplayer trivia game that works via BD-Live.
• “Pocket Blu” is included on this release which allows users on an iPhone or iPod Touch to add exclusive bonus content to their portable device as well as use the touch screen of the device as a virtual keyboard or remote control.
• Digital Copy of the film is included which is compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media portable devices, both Mac and PC. As with all digital copies, this will only last for one year after the street date.
• “Nation’s Pride” (6:10 – SD) is the film within the film “Inglourious Basterds” that you see premiering. You see it here in it’s entirety, sadly the (short) film itself is only presented here in Standard Definition, yet you will see clips of it in Hi-Def in the “making of” featurette discussed down further below.
• “Extended & Alternate Scenes” (11:26 – HD) include Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound @448kbps.
• “Roundtable Discussion with Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and film historian/critic Elvis Mitchell” (30:45 – HD) proves to be a very interesting interview with Tarantino and Pitt moderated by Mitchell who asks some really great questions.
• “The Making of Nation’s Pride” (4:00 – HD) takes a making of look at the film inside the film with the characters from the film, still in character, except for Eli Roth who is also in the movie but here served as real-life director and the fictional director which he portrays in-character here. That is a bit confusing to word to you but if you saw the film or when you see the film you will understand what I mean.
• “The Original Inglorious Bastards” (7:39 – SD) is not to be confused with the original 1978 film that served as some tiny inspiration to Tarantino. This is in actuality a clip of cameos from folks that were involved with the original film and their work in “Inglourious Basterds” and also it features a salute in the form of a series of clips from the original film — of similar title but different spelling.
• “A Conversation with Veteran Actor Rod Taylor” (6:43 – HD) has him discussing working Quentin Tarantino who he actually admires.
• “Rod Taylor on Victoria Bitters, the Australian Beer” (3:19 – HD) has Taylor back discussing working with Tarantino even more and of course the Australian beer “Victoria Bitters“. This proves to be very interesting.
• “Quentin Tarantino’s Camera Angel” (2:42 – SD), not to be confused with angle, you read correctly, angel — as in with a halo and wings except here it is the girl who was in charge of using the clapboard throughout the filming of “Inglorious Basterds“. The scene version titles are very cool, I’ll just leave it at that and let you see and hear for yourself.
• “Hi Sallys – Gag Reel” (2:09 – SD) are called “Hi Sallys” for those of you who don’t know because of Tarantino‘s editor Sally Menke who ends up seeing these outtakes. These prove to be hilarious (as always), especially the ones done by Mike Myers.
• “Film Poster Gallery Tour with Elvis Mitchell” (11:00 – SD) takes a look at the fiction and real motion picture posters displayed in the film, namely in the cinema where the film “Nation’s Pride” premieres. Film historian and critic Elvis Mitchell offers a very interesting audio commentary as you view the film posters in a slideshow-style presentation.
• “Inglourious Basterds Poster Gallery” (HD)
• Domestic and International Trailers (7:33 – HD) has mostly Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound @448kbps but one or two only have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound @192kbps.
• “D-BOX” motion code is include on this release for those with equipment capable of decoding this.

Overall the bonus materials are definitely impressive and worthwhile, which will leave fans of the film pleased but this does scream out “double-dip” sometime in the future with maybe perhaps then finally an audio commentary from Quentin. The “Pocket Blu“, the Digital Copy are nice to see included as well as the D-BOX for those who can enjoy these features.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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